Even if you don't like every story in the collection, the weight and range of this volume makes it another winner. A great cross-section of the subgenre. See also The Ascent of Wonder.

I'm a sucker for hard SF. I keep it handy and re-read the ones I like and re-read the ones I forgot. I'm rarely disappointed.

Lots of stories inside, some a bit long. Some I skipped, others were wonderful. Wouldn't link hard scifi to politics myself though, as I vaguely recall this is how the authors define hard scifi.I wish I'd written down some feedback per story, for myself. Would've made a review more proper.

Tired crap that I have read too many times in the past in other compilations. I feel that this ebook was a total waste of my money and time.I have read all these stories in other anthologies; sometimes more than once. What a ripoff. These end are expensive!!!

I have a real weakness for space opera. Mostly excellent stories - which is high praise for an anthology.

One of my all time favorite books. If you're looking for poetic language and character development, this book isn't for you. If you enjoy thought provoking, imaginative scientific concepts then you will enjoy this. I loved about 90% of this book, and I thought that the philosophical implications of several stories were quite profound.

So, full disclosure... I didn't finish this. I liked it, but there are just so many great venues for short sci-fi these days: Tor, Lightspeed Magazine, Escape Pod, and many, many more. When I get a hankering for science fiction, I'm generally more excited by a specific book or author than I am about the next story in a collection. What I read was good, but I was ready to move on.

Partial reread of landmark collection. Full TOC: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?2...Excellent long review by Greg L. Johnson: https://www.sfsite.com/05a/re151.htmGood story-by-story review: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...An excellent anthology, 4+ stars. Not to be missed, for fans of short SF. Best read (or reread) over some weeks, perhaps. 960 pages!Standout stories this time:Think Like a Dinosaur • (1995) • novelette by James Patrick Kelly. What to do with your duplicate (which i...

Aggregate score of individually rated stories... 3.5 (rounding down because of how many were marked "DNF"). I'd like to return to this one some day, finish off the stories that I didn't get to, and give another (more patient) attempt at those I abandoned.DNF = Did Not FinishDNS = Did Not Start• Paul McAuley: "GENE WARS" ★★★☆☆• Greg Egan: "WANG'S CARPETS" ★★★★☆• Poul Anderson: "GENESIS" DNF• Kim Stanley Robinson: "ARTHUR STERNBACH BRINGS THE CURVEBALL TO MARS" ★★★★★• Stephen Baxter: "ON THE ORION...

Most of the stories fall into two categories that I have no patience with -- man-vs.-nature adventure stories and Concepts thinly clad in character and plot. Stories I did enjoy:Nancy Kress's novella version of "Beggars in Spain" -- the one where gene therapy makes it possible for children to be born who don't need to sleep, and a political/moral philosophy holds that all good is generated by individuals trading their best efforts. Not quite as good as I had expected it to be, to tell the truth,...

I really enjoyed this collection of science fiction stories, as well as the editors' introduction to each story, which frame what the author thought about the genre of hard science fiction (defined so differently by each author). I personally enjoy science fiction stories. I think they're thought-provoking and widen the imagination from the earthbound, to the profound implications of space and technology. The stories I felt that stood out:Ted Chiang, Understand - I felt that this was the best st...

Long, very long.And not always in a good way.But mostly.There are 41 stories in this volume, 12 of them novelette length, and 7 of them novellas. At 960 pages, there’s a lot of SF here, and most of it enjoyable. Most of it also published in the 1990s, but since this collection was published in 2002, that shouldn’t be surprising. If Mr. Hartwell were still with us, I wonder what kind of volume of Hard SF he might have put together using the first decade or so of the 21st century.As it is, he gath...

Here are the stories that most stood out:* "Beggars In Spain" by Nancy Kress* "Marrow" by Robert Reed* "Sexual Dimorphism" by Kim Stanley Robinson* "Into the Miranda Rift" by G. David Nordley* "The Shoulders of Giants" by Robert J. Sawyer* "For White Hill" by Joe Haldeman* "A Career in Sexual Chemistry" by Brian M. Stableford* "Reasons to be Cheerful" by Greg Egan* "Understand" by Ted Chiang

A must-read collection of hard science fiction from the 1980s and 1990s! Mostly US and UK, and mostly written by men (with a few precious exceptions), so not very diverse in many respects. But WOW, did these stories blow me away! Highly recommended for all hard SF fans. First, if you're writing hard SF, as I am, it's really humbling to see the amazing ideas from genetics, neuroscience, physics, robotics, virtual reality, space travel, etc. etc. that these writers are weaving into edge-of-the-sea...

Great honk, this is the longest friggin' book ever.LIST OF SHORT STORIES & RATINGS:Paul McAuley -- Gene Wars (***)Greg Egan -- Wang's Carpets (***)Poul Anderson -- Genesis (*)Kim S. Robinson -- Arthur Sternbach Brings the Curveball to Mars (**)Stephen Baxter -- On the Orion Line (**)Nancy Kress -- Beggars in Spain (***)Gregory Benford -- Matter's End (**)Arthur C. Clarke -- Hammer of God (did not read, already read the novel)James P. Kelley -- Think Like A Dinosaur (****)Ben Bova -- Mount Olympu...

(review is about "Think like a Dinosaur")I bought this after remembering the outer limits episode... which was awesome (not quite the level of "time enough to read" but still pretty good.) Much like 'time enough to read' I feel that the television episode may have been better than the book. I mean, it was a brilliant concept, don't get me wrong, but the execution left something to be desired, I think.

Short story anthologies are sometimes thought to be easier reads, but the toughest part of any book for me is always the beginning, where the task of wrapping my head around the characters, the setting, and the premise of the story requires special attention. The Hard SF Renaissance is a collection of 43 stories--that's 43 beginnings spanning 960 pages of hard science fiction.  In short, reading this book requires a commitment.Thankfully, the commitment is abundantly rewarded.  David G. Hartwell...

Why did the editor feel the need to point out the writers' politics in every introductory statement? Otherwise a good collection, some stories 'harder' than others.

"Gene Wars," by Paul Macauley (1991): 7.75 - radical honesty time: am I too stupid for sci-fi? seems possible, I mean, why wouldn't I be, non-science person I am? I guess I'm here to judge literary merits, or at least the way in which the hard sci-fi elements are translated to the lay reader--in which case, sure, good here. I liked the clear way in which our protagonist was both implicated in the dystopia around him and differentiated all at the same time, even coming, at the end of his own lif...

This is kinda perpetually on my 'currently reading' shelf even though I think I've read all the stories at least once already. It's a wonderful selection, a couple of stories that stand out are Poul Anderson's Genesis which is a history of various other-earths that exist as simulations with various variables like affinity to science/religion, complexity of simulation...etc tweaked, with very interesting results. Just finished Bruce Sterling's Bicycle Repairman which is a simple story about a you...